And so I thought I would also post some other pictures here of how I am winding down, in the evenings here at home, for the moment.

Playing around at finishing with some different types of colors….oils, water-bases and flakes on a piece of white oak that was leftover from a recent bandsaw tune up. The piece of white oak wood you see here is about 1/16’’ in thickness, and when I reach that deminsion in a bandsaw tune true up….you might say I am on the money. So what happens to the wood I use from those true ups, some are made into boxs while others become test platforms for the finishes that I will be using on that current piece of furniture, ‘wood art’ or ‘free form’ sculpture.

One of the first questions folks often ask me is about finishing wood, as they are busily feeling the wood before them. And make no-mistake here….if your wood is not acceptable to the touch of the one doing the feeling, you have all-ready lost in the fields of selling fine pieces of wood creations. So I will spend time with customers and tell them whatever I can about finishing wood, knowing that many want be buying from what I have, but will in turn go home and repeat this information on their own wood creations. This does not bother me, since I learned long ago that if I can give away information and the so called secrets of wood finishing, just as soon as I empty myself out….more comes my way from within.

When it comes to wood there are so many terminologies that one comes across….—-hard-wood and soft-wood,—-maple-wood, oak-wood, pine-wood, birch-wood, ash-wood, beech-wood, poplar-wood, cherry-wood….and I will stop here since these are some of the woods I cut on my land and use,—-spalted-wood and punky-wood,—-late-wood and early-wood….

....late-wood and early-woodin the wood grain of white oak. This is where I am going to be talking more of and about as i explore into the finishing aspects of some white oak wood, for the The Multi-Purposed 2×4 in the upcoming LJ Woodworking Awards – Winter 2008....

....what one should//can understand is that finishing wood is no-secret society of the special few. If one spends much time reading books on wood finishing, one might get the impression that ‘they’ are so good at it and how could I ever do what ‘they’ are doing. Believe me when I say that finishing wood is open to all and can be done with extreme success by any having//wanting to produce their own results. The only thing one needs to do is, be willing to ask and explore by yourself, however if one has the attitude that wood finishing is ugh…. then ugh will be ones finishes. However if one wants to produce great wood finishes on their wood projects, then all one has to do is be willing to make-up as you go along. There is a lot of truth in the saying….”fake it, till you make it”. And so I turn this piece over here and give you some more shots of the other side….